When Honey is Not All Honey and Other Tales of Food Adulteration

Ion chromatography as a tool for detecting food fraud

High cost food and beverages are targets of adulteration for economic gain. Foods that are naturally sweet, such as honey, are often diluted with inexpensive sweeteners and then sold as 100% natural.

Orange juice has been subject to the same type of adulteration. Expensive fruit juices can be diluted with less expensive juices to reap economic gain and defraud the customer. Sometimes a food product is valued for its geographic origin. These products are also subject to fraud when the same type of product from a different location is labeled as being from the desired location. Labeling a whisky as Scotch whisky that was not produced in Scotland is an example of this type of fraud.

Many expect there will be more cases of food and beverage fraud in the future. Fortunately there are analytical techniques available to detect many of these adulteration and authenticity issues. Ion chromatography (IC) is one such technique. After minimal sample preparation, often just dilution and filtration, samples are separated by ion-exchange and detected by suppressed conductivity, amperometric, absorbance, or some other detection.

This webinar will review the basics of IC and then detail examples of how IC has been applied to food and beverage adulteration and authenticity studies. Foods and beverages that will be discussed include honey, coffee, and fruit juices.